


A Day In the Life

by Dryad



Category: St. Elsewhere
Genre: Gen, pg13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 07:07:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4170639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dryad/pseuds/Dryad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It waits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day In the Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SegaBarrett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/gifts).



The Hospital.

A place of healing. And death. And life. 

The world passes through the doors of the Hospital, soaking into the bones of its walls and foundations. You don't notice it after the first few days, as you become comfortable with its rhythms.

On your first day, what you sense is an overwhelming sense of...desperation. From patients, from doctors, from nurses. Desperate hope for a cure, to be outside once again, to be amidst flowers and rain and people chatting on the bus. You want to be free of the trappings of illness, of the potential (reality) of Death. Most of the time, this is how it is. 

_"It's like I was saying, he's on something! I swear to god that man is not right in the head," Caroline folded her arms across her chest. She could talk until she was blue in the face, Amanda was not going to listen to her._

_"You're crazy! He's just separated from his wife, could be the opportunity to have a little fun," said Amanda, winking at her while shrugging one shoulder._

_Caroline shook her head. She glanced at Dani, who wouldn't say boo to a ghost, she was that anxious. "Ignore her," she stage-whispered, leaning close. "This is your first day on the job, don't let her get to you."_

_Dani smiled nervously, her already pale skin paling even further. Oh god, she was going to be one of those ones._

_"We're talking about Dr. White," Amanda said, scrunching her nose up. "He's just so cute!"_

_Caroline rolled her eyes so hard she thought they might pop right out of her head._

And yet...

....look there. There's a Doctor whose son accidentally shot himself and died. You might think to yourself, What a tragedy! And yet, think of this Doctor, who could not save his own child, and thus tries to save all the children, choosing to relive his own agony through the pain of others in the hope he can _save_ someone else from that very agony. A paradox, you say to yourself. 

The Hospital is not uncaring. It cannot do anything but eat the painful sins of others. Yet for all that, it is also a place of comfort. Patients are caught in the queer tension of relaxation for they are being taken care of, and terror, because Death is near, maybe down the hallway, or the room over, in the bed beyond the curtain. 

_"Samuels, he's dead. A fat embolism - "_

_Dr. Samuels didn't hear anything beyond that his patient is dead. The sweetest little boy, reminded him of Billy. He reeled to one side in disbelief. How could this happen? How were children allowed to die like that? Why?_

_After work he went to some random bar, talked to a pretty girl who poured him into a cab at the very earliest hour of the morning, when the world was black but still shrill and awake. Every time he opened his eyes, the journey home became a whirl of bright lights, enough to make him ponder being sick even though he was no heavyweight when it came to liquor. The exact opposite, in fact. Thing was, he wanted to simply close his eyes, but the problem was that he knew he would see both Billy his patient. Liquor sure had seemed like the best idea at the time. He wished he could have distracted himself with that girl's body. Too bad she had been incredibly young and naive, a peach ripe for plucking. He would not be at all surprised if she ended up being one of his patients sooner or later. She seemed like that kind of girl._

The Hospital waits. It is not impatient, for it knows that it will see everything in due time. It doesn't begrudge people their pain or their pleasure -

_"Pregnant?" Beale stuttered. "She's a psychiatric patient!"_

_The nurse shrugged. "Nothing to do with me," she said, stepping around him to get to her next patient._

_The board was going to have a shit fit when they heard about this. Even more when they found out she was going to keep the baby. Beale rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to relieve the sudden ache where his glasses usually sat. It was all so fucking unfair. He did_ not _need to deal with this now, of all times! Yes, of course it wasn't the first time, but Jesus Christ couldn't it be the last? What did he have to do, lock the patients onto the ward? Make them wear chastity belts, even the men? Fuck, this was going to be a goddamned mess._

The Hospital watches the shenanigans its inhabitants get up without judgement. In the current crop of doctors, it has seen Dr. Fiscus and the pathologist who is oddly, always on site, getting it on more than once. A sight it could without, if it were conscious enough to contemplate such a thing. 

_"He's not going to regain consciousness," Morrison said gently. He still hated breaking bad news. At least he did it in the most efficient way possible. No false hope that 'things could be done'. Mr. Johnson was brain dead, and there was nothing he or anyone else could do about it. Yes, yes, maybe a miracle would happen. And maybe pigs would fly. "I'm sorry."_

_Mrs. Johnson wailed and flew into her cousin's arms. He held her tight, and when Morrison made the mistake of looking directly in the eye, the man winked._

_Jesus…Morrison dropped his gaze to the floor, glanced up one more time to be treated to the man stroking Mrs.Johnson's hair. Disgusted and angry, Morrison left the room. God, the things you saw in a hospital. He really had had no idea. Or maybe it was just St. Eligius, and when he moved on to another hospital it would all be different._

_Yeah._

_Sure._

_Right._

The Hospital watches the thrum and flow of movement within itself, like blood flowing through the hallways of its arteries, the surgical theaters of its heart. It is silent, contemplative, waiting for what, it knows not. I

It eats the sin, becomes an oasis with only occasionally poisoned water.

It exists in no time and all time, present always. 

~*~  
End  
~*~

It waits, and watches, and holds the life within sacred.

**Author's Note:**

> So a number of years ago, a friend and I broke into an abandoned mental hospital in the area. It was an old brick building, very close in looks to the hospital featured in the movie Session 9 (which is fantastic, btw). Neither one of us had ever been in a place so...a place where illness had soaked into the very bones of the building. It had been closed for some 20-30 years by the time we were there, but it gave us the willies none the less.
> 
> It's been a long time since I've watched St. Elsewhere - I hope this story was okay!


End file.
